BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  SB 205
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 17, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                 SB 205 (Correa) - As Introduced:  February 8, 2011 

          Policy Committee:                              ElectionsVote:5-2

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          Yes    Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill:

          1)Makes it a misdemeanor for a person to offer to pay or to 
            receive payment on a per-registration basis for assisting 
            another person to register to vote by receiving their 
            completed affidavit of registration. 

          2)Provides that nothing in the bill shall be construed to 
            prohibit payment for assisting another person to register to 
            vote by receiving the completed affidavit that is not on a 
            per-affidavit basis.

           FISCAL EFFECT  


          Potential minor nonreimbursable costs to cities and counties for 
          enforcement, offset to some extent by fine revenues. 


           COMMENTS  

           1)Background and Purpose  . In each of the last three election 
            cycles, voters have file complaints stating that they were 
            misled into changing their party affiliations.  According to 
            media reports of these complaints, the voter registration 
            workers who were accused of misleading these voters were paid 
            as much as $15 for each new voter that the worker registered 
            with a particular political party.

            According to the Secretary of State's Election Fraud 
            Investigation Unit (EFIU), between 1994 and 2010, a total of 








                                                                  SB 205
                                                                  Page  2

            960 cases were opened for fraudulent voter registration or 
            fraudulently altering party affiliation on voter registration 
            cards. Of this total, 99 cases were referred to district 
            attorneys for prosecution, resulting in 64 convictions.  These 
            cases involving voter registration fraud outnumber any other 
            type of election crime.

            SB 205 prohibits payment on a per-affidavit basis for voter 
            registration. At least 11 have a similar law: Colorado, 
            Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, 
            Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin. 

           2)Related Legislation  . SB 168 (Corbett), 2011, makes it a 
            misdemeanor for anyone to pay, or be paid, based on the number 
            of signatures obtained for a state or local initiative, 
            referendum, or recall petition.  SB 168 was vetoed; the 
            governor cited uncontended consequences, such as increasing 
            the cost of circulating petitions and disincentivizing  
            productivity goals. 

           3)Prior Legislation  . In 2007, SB 812 (Correa), a similar bill, 
            passed this committee but was subsequently amended to address 
            an unrelated issue.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081